Bangladesh and Vietnam came closer on Saturday when the Southeast Asian country celebrated its traditional lunar new year in Dhaka filled with music and food.
The Lunar New Year is known in Vietnam as Tet Nguyen Dan. It is regarded as the most important annual festival for the Vietnamese people.
Ambassador of Vietnam Pham Viet Chien hosted the event at the chancery with the participation of both Vietnamese and Bangladeshis who raised a toast for the well-being, peace and prosperity of the two nations.
“A new spring is coming in every corner in Viet Nam as well as in the hearts of Vietnamese people. I warmly welcome all of you to our reception on the Lunar new year 2020 today,” the ambassador said, highlighting the historic bilateral relations.
Bangladesh was one of the first countries in Asia to recognise and establish diplomatic relations at envoy level with the then Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam. On February 11, 1973, both sides officially established diplomatic relations. Vietnam was one of the first nations to recognise Bangladesh’s independence in 1971.
Both countries share common objectives in multilateral forums such as the UN, Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), and South-South Co-operation.
The two-way trade is also increasing. The ambassador said the bilateral trade reached nearly $1billion last year. The target is to reach $2 billion by the end of the 2021 when Bangladesh will be graduating from the LDC.
The ambassador said that the year 2019 marked an important milestone when Vietnam and Bangladesh witnessed “impressive” economic growth.
He highly appreciated Bangladesh's ‘impressive’ development and mentioned that Bangladesh is going ahead of Vietnam as the growth now in Bangladesh is 8 percent while it is 7 percent in Vietnam.
He expressed the hope that the existing bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Vietnam will continue to grow and laying emphasis on bolstering cooperation in the fields of trade, tourism, and people-to-people contact between the countries.
The Ambassador expressed his belief that the Vietnamese community in Bangladesh will make effective contributions to the homeland development and push forward the practical development of bilateral relations.
“The Vietnamese community in Bangladesh will always have a great unity and intimacy and every single person will be an outstanding representative of Vietnamese people in Bangladesh,” the Ambassador said.
The expatriate Vietnamese will continue to contribute to promoting the traditional friendship and cooperation for development between the two countries, he said
Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Foreign Affairs Faruk Khan attended the reception and highlighted the impressive bilateral cooperation between Bangladesh and Vietnam.
He said Vietnam has a ‘special place’ in the hearts of Bangladeshis as both the nations have struggled for their independence. “The people of Bangladesh always extended support to the Liberation War of Vietnam,” he added.
